Pat Bertram is the author of the suspense novels Light Bringer, Daughter Am I, More Deaths Than One, and A Spark of Heavenly Fire. Bertram is also the author of Grief: The Great Yearning, “an exquisite book, wrenching to read, and at the same time full of profound truths.”

People are always sending me stuff to post on my blog. Usually it has nothing to do with books or authors, but this particular press release caught my attention. The following is fun to read, anyway, and to dream of one day writing an iconic book.

Hundreds of items from the estate of the late American author Gore Vidal, including selections from his personal library, choice correspondence and literary awards, will be auctioned on Sept. 18 by Abell Auction Company in Los Angeles.

A true man of letters, Vidal’s works of historical fiction, essays and political commentaries represent some of this century’s most famous works. The extensive sale will feature items ranging in value from approximately $400 to $10,000 from the former homes of Vidal and his partner Howard Austen: a villa called “La Rondinaia” in the resort town of Ravello, Italy and Mediterranean style home in the Outpost Estates neighborhood of Los Angeles’ Hollywood Hills. Both properties were featured in design magazines such as Architectural Digest and also frequented by royalty, Broadway and Hollywood writers and actors, important literary figures and politicians.

The live and online sale will start at 10 a.m. PST and include items notable to art and antique collectors such as an Italian Baroque giltwood and marble console; a porphyry marble table top; a Flemish Verdure tapestry; a pair of Italian Baroque painted and parcel gilt torchieres; an Italian walnut commode and secretaire; a Victorian walnut partner’s desk; a set of four Italian painted overdoors; a collection of Old Master paintings and drawings; a Roman marble funerary urn and Asian artifacts.

For those interested in unique personal effects and memorabilia, standout items include Vidal’s personal library of first edition works under his name and pseudonyms; awards and recognitions, including his elite “Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” medallion for contributions to the arts in France; a typed note from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tennessee Williams; a letterman’s jacket from the animated comedy “The Simpsons”; and much more.

Vidal died in 2012 at age 86 and is remembered as one of America’s most prolific and versatile writers. Among his most famous works are “Lincoln,” “Myra Breckinridge” and “The City and the Pillar.” A member of an illustrious political family, he was the grandson of a U.S. Senator and twice ran unsuccessfully for public office. His mother’s second husband was the stepfather of Jacqueline Kennedy.

An auction preview will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. from Sept. 14 to 17 at the Abell gallery, 2613 Yates Ave., Los Angeles. For more information, call 323.724.8102 or visit www.abell.com, where a complete catalogue will be posted on Sept. 2.

Books by Pat Bertram

Available online wherever books and ebooks are sold.

Thirty-seven years after being abandoned on the doorstep of a remote cabin in Colorado, Becka Johnson returns to try to discover her identity, but she only finds more questions. Who has been looking for her all those years? And why are those same people interested in fellow newcomer Philip Hansen?

When twenty-five-year-old Mary Stuart learns she inherited a farm from her recently murdered grandparents -- grandparents her father claimed had died before she was born -- she becomes obsessed with finding out who they were and why someone wanted them dead.

In quarantined Colorado, where hundreds of thousands of people are dying from an unstoppable, bio-engineered disease, investigative reporter Greg Pullman risks everything to discover the truth: Who unleashed the deadly organism? And why?

Bob Stark returns to Denver after 18 years in SE Asia to discover that the mother he buried before he left is dead again. At her new funeral, he sees . . . himself. Is his other self a hoaxer, or is something more sinister going on?

Grief: The Great Yearning is not a how-to but a how-done, a compilation of letters, blog posts, and journal entries Pat Bertram wrote while struggling to survive her first year of grief. This is an exquisite book, wrenching to read, and at the same time full of profound truths.